2013 Adjudicators

Bill Damur - B.Mus, B.Ed, M.Mus - guitar, woodwinds, and band adjudicator

Bill Damur, a descendant of Jean de Muris, medieval music theorist and author of the treatise Summa Musicae, studied in the U.K. with Wilfred Smith, Christopher Taylor, Adrian Brett, and in Edmonton with Alan Clarke and Harlan Green to attain the first Masters Degree granted in Flute Performance at the University of Alberta. While there, he received the Sklove Award for chamber music and the Eva Shaw Prize for the Most Outstanding Student in any year of study. He has taught flute, guitar, theory, composition and ensemble coaching at Alberta College Conservatory of Music since 1983. He has performed with the Plumbers' Union Recorder Consort, members of the E.S.O, Edmonton Wind Symphonia, Griffin Concert, Café Musique, Baffin Island Party, Chanticleer, Amati Trio, Möbius, B.E.A.M.S., Baroque Resurection Groups and other music embracing its earliest forms to the avant garde. Bill has also written, arranged, performed and directed for all of them. He has shared the stage with Rod Stewart, The Birds andIron Butterfly. Bill is also an ARIA Award Nominee, and in 2000 was nominated for a STERLING Award for his co-writing of the Post Punk Operaproduction of “The Illumination of Marshall McLuhan.” His students often attain University Degrees and many move on to become working musicians.

His knowledge of the subject is scholarly. He is no stranger to the media, producing his own radio shows at C.J.S.R. from 1988-2000. Among his awards for music, Bill holds an award from the Edmonton Journal, the Golden Pen. Bill has finished music for films, is active in theatre, is well known as a composer/arranger, and clinician. He has taught in the public school system and enjoys his role as a festival adjudicator. He continues to tour and in 2002, Nunavut Tourism awarded Bill with the Order of Arctic Explorers (OAE) for his live music and educational services to the North.

His music is recognized internationally and has been recorded on several CD releases, the latest of which was with Möbius in 2006 entitled “Served” from which his piece “Spy Story” was the featured single. Bill maintains a close relationship with Edmonton’s Works Festival as a frequent contributor of new music and has often been a composer/performer during the city’s Jazz Festival season. His recent membership in Edmonton’s Arts Council has led Bill to take a greater interest in his city’s artistic and aesthetic development, and he volunteers as a member of the 118th Ave restoration project, “Arts on the Avenue.”

Jolaine Kerley - B.Mus, M.Mus - vocal adjudicator

Helve Sastok - B.Mus, M.Mus - piano and composition adjudicator

Helve Sastok is a creative and innovative published and performed composer, educator, adjudicator and pianist.Sastok has a Master of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree (with distinction) in composition from the University of Alberta, as well as two piano performance diplomas. She is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, a member of the Canadian League of Composers, and the Association of Canadian Women Composers, as well as New Music Edmonton, the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association, the Alberta Registered Music Teachers Association, and the Alberta Piano Teachers Association. Since 1994, Sastok has been involved as a composer and educator with The Artist in Schools Residency Program throughout Alberta. She is an Artist with the Learning Through The Arts program through the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto since 2007. Workshops given in various centers on composition, improvisation, piano pedagogy, Canadian music and twentieth century music have been well received.Sastok's compositions have been performed across Canada and in Europe with the most recent performance being a multimedia presentation of her piece, ‘Shooting Star’ in Edmonton and in Europe by Ensemble Mujirushi. Three of her pieces have been released on CD: 'Duologue' on Brief Confessions (1997), 'Elegy' on Glossa (1999), and her electro-acoustic composition 'Sailing the High 'C'' on Cult Figures Centrediscs/Centredisques (2008).

Joachim Segger - B.Mus, M.Mus, D.Mus - piano adjudicator

Canadian keyboard artist Joachim Segger is a versatile musician who maintains an active career performing piano, duo and chamber recitals as well as concertos.Educated at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., the University of Alberta, Canada and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, piano professors include Ernesto Lejano and Helmut Brauss (University of Alberta), Kurt Neumüller (Mozarteum, Salzburg), Cécile Staub Genhart (Eastman School of Music) and Menahem Pressler (University of Indiana). One of the youngest students at Eastman to receive the Performer's Certificate, he also won the Concerto Competition and performed the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Eastman Philharmonia conducted by David Effron. Joachim Segger performed a solo piano Carnegie Recital Hall debut at the age of twenty one. His standard and contemporary piano repertoire is vast and eclectic, as exemplified in his solo piano CD "Bravato."Dr. Segger is Chair and Professor of Music at The King's University College, Edmonton, Alberta and Adjunct Professor of Music/Keyboard Faculty at the University of Alberta. He performs internationally with his colleague saxophonist Charles Stolte, often premiering contemporary music.

In demand as a collaborative artist, Segger’s recent work includes a concert with the world-renowned bass- baritone Pavlo Hunka in a performance of Yakiv Stepovyi "The Art Songs". As part of the Ukrainian Arts Song Project the performance will soon be released on YouTube.

With Duo Majoya partner Marnie Giesbrecht, Joachim Segger has performed internationally to critical acclaim. Ardent supporters and performers of contemporary music, Giesbrecht and Segger,Duo Majoya, perform on September 9, 2012 in the Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, four major works commissioned for them; composed by Ruth Watson Henderson, Rachel Laurin, Barrie Cabena and Jacobus Kloppers.Duo Majoya has made significant world impact performing and commissioning works for the genre of organ/piano duet and has recorded two CD's for this combination: "Transcriptions for Two" and "Skyscape." In addition, they have recorded a piano duet CD 'The Elegance and the Ecstasy" and their newest CD "Duo Majoya: Organ Duets on the Davis Concert Organ" recorded at the Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton.

A church organist since the age of nine, Joachim is well known for his workshops on improvisation at national conventions and as a traveling clinician for the Royal Canadian College of Organists.